NUCLEAR waste from other power stations is now being stored in Berkeley despite residents being told that this would never happen.

Members of the Magnox-run power station’s site stakeholder group (SSG) were told that waste from Sizewell A and Dungeness A power stations would be kept at Berkeley via Oldbury.

The company said that a small amount of waste from the power stations in Suffolk and Kent after it revised its waste strategy to reduce costs.

Storing the “intermediate level waste” (ILW) at Berkeley would save about £200 million.

At the meeting of Berkeley Town Council on Monday, Cllr Liz Ashton, a member of the SSG told fellow councillors that the move was taking place despite being told previously that no external waste would be stored at the site.

She said: “Some small containers of nuclear waste is going to start coming from other power stations to Berkeley.

“It is a small amount of stuff but we were told that we would never have any waste from anywhere else.”

The move will mean that about 10 per cent of the waste stored at Berkeley will be from other sites in the country.

Waste was first stored at Berkeley’s interim storage facility in 2014 with the aim of it being moved on following the future availability of a national disposal centre.

In a statement Magnox said: “Our proposals for managing intermediate level waste (ILW) using Berkeley’s storage facilities are in-line with those discussed with stakeholders at length and in detail over the past three years.

“The proposal remains to transfer Oldbury ILW packages to Berkeley for interim storage pending disposal to the geological disposal facility (GDF) and is not new.

“We have now revised our waste strategy, looking for improvements, and believe our proposals will support significant worker, environmental and public benefits, such as saving about 12 months construction work and about 1,000 HGV movements associated with building a store at Oldbury.

“In addition the proposals contribute to an overall saving of about £200m for the taxpayer across our sites.

"These proposals include moving a type of ILW called an IONSIV cartridge from Oldbury to Berkeley, some of which have come from Sizewell A and Dungeness A.

They will be packed at Oldbury before being put in interim storage at Berkeley.

“In total this will result in about 15 additional ILW packages.

“This means there will be an approximate total of 70 ILW packages transferred to Berkeley for interim storage; for context Berkeley’s waste will be stored in around 600 packages.

“There is no intention currently to import waste from any other sites to Berkeley for interim storage.

“Our plans pay the highest regard to safety, security and the environment.

“They are the subject of an ongoing planning application and we will continue to talk to stakeholders as the planning process develops.”